Board 8 > Reality Show General Discussion Topic: Fewer Villains, More Inspiration

(+) Yeah! (+)

Mewtwo59 posted...

Yeah, if Jelinsky wasn't on this season, I'd say Jeff's speech about "one of you has no chance of winning this game" was referring to Venus.

I mean Bhanu existed too so

Mewtwo59 posted...

Yeah, if Jelinsky wasn't on this season, I'd say Jeff's speech about "one of you has no chance of winning this game" was referring to Venus.

There's also Jess, who could never in a million years make it to endgame without having a panic attack and jetting out of there, and Bhanu, who is an out-of-control puppy dog that any alliance would get tired of babysitting. I'd say Venus is somehow the 4th-worst player in this cast.

Also Mo dropping that bomb is entirely stupid given the lies she told earlier. Terrible timing and even more terrible to contradict herself before they even vote together. So maybe she's even worse than Venus.

Also, I am LOVING all this poor play. Such a trainwreck. Tim hasn't committed to anything and torpedoed a lot of potential bridges. Mo doing this.... geez.

Moriah is trying to out-misplay Venus.

Is Venus... trying to flirt with Jeff, Julie Berry style?

The fact that they DIDN'T consider Charlie as a legitimate target is kinda frustrating. I hate how often the merge is just "we want this to be easy, so let's take out the person already on the bottom."

Thank God for that. Venus single-handedly carried that merge episode.

The Shit in the Dark once again produces a boring reveal.

Blaziken posted...

The fact that they DIDN'T consider Charlie as a legitimate target is kinda frustrating. I hate how often the merge is just "we want this to be easy, so let's take out the person already on the bottom."

At one point, the merge episode was one of the best episodes of the season. Now, the "Mergatory" episode, which any reasonable Survivor fan would say is the real merge since they're all on one beach and voting together, is one of the worst, because of this strategic shift. It's sad. I'd think if they dropped the twist BS, they could make it more exciting again.

Blaziken posted...

Moriah is trying to out-misplay Venus.

I think she thought by telling the truth at Tribal, she could get some people in her corner. Instead most of Siga changed their votes to Mo because they saw they couldn't trust her, and she told Q.... let me quote LJ from Cagayan: "In order to show he's trustworthy, Tony told us that he lied. ...different."

UGH @ this preview. Doing two rounds in a row that aren't a "real merge" AGAIN.

That's the problem with merging so early and with so many players. You don't have enough time to really gauge relationships, and you wind up just needing to target the easy pickings to buy yourself a few extra days.

I'm really hoping this is one of those dance tasks that always manages to trip up young white guys, because Juan & Shane are a team I just want to go out sooner, rather than later.

Oh man, they really overthought that one.

Amber is so dramatic. We need more of those kinds of meltdowns.

Yeah, those roadblocks are unbalanced if Angie & Danny managed to make up that much time, especially after getting lost going to the clue.

I was gonna say choosing the dance detour was dumb...but then I saw Sunny & Bizzy's attempt at the rhebus. Holy fuck.

Well, I'm glad one team had their native Spanish speaker do this challenge

How the heck did Sunny & Bizzy manage to catch up? That is like Steve & Anna Leigh F7 levels of catching up.

The other two teams have no idea on what the map's orientation is, so they've probably just been there so long that it gave Sunny & Bizzy a chance to catch up.

I don't think they actually got it. I think they just didn't want Phil going out on the course and potentially catching COVID.

Holy shit Phil actually did some double dutch.

This episode had some decent moments for most of the cast, but whole hell Ricky/Cesar, Juan/Shane and Yvonne/Melissa bring NOTHING to the season.

Moriah going this early is too bad. She had massive theatre kid vibes and I don't even know if she was an actual theater kid but she had the vibes more so than actual theatre kid Jake did.

So we're four episodes into TAR36, and I've gotta say that Kishori & Karishma have carried this season every episode thus far. They may have been low-key throughout most of this most recent episode...but that meltdown at the roadblock brought it back, and I'm so happy they've lasted as long as they have (even if there's no real chance they'll last much longer, since the staggered start times barely give a chance for people to regain their footing...unless you have an insanely unbalanced detour like this episode for Angie & Danny).

Kishori & Karishma and Amber & Vinny are by far my favorite teams so far. Somehow I just knew, even before the season started, that Amber & Vinny would be one of those couples and they haven't disappointed.

I think switching to self-driving rather than the race-provided transportation they've had the last two weeks is going to trip up some of the teams and allow for some shakeups. But Kishori & Karishma are probably going to end up being one of those teams that sucks at navigating, so I don't know if it'll help them (and didn't the preview show them struggling with the stick shift)?

I feel like Kishori & Karishma are going to be this season's team that is constantly near the bottom but somehow makes it to final 5 or 6 because every leg has at least one team that does just a bit worse than them that day.

Finally finished Survivor AU, what an incredible season. Can't recommend it enough. It's a season with a truly unclear edit, lots of contenders, and a balls-to-the-wall chaotic postmerge we as viewers have wanted and needed for the last few years.

Was the person who you thought had the obvious winner edit early on the person who ended up winning?

I'd be much more willing to buy that scene from Kenzie if she hadn't been so mean girl cliquish pre-merge.

Did they all bring their bags this time?

Venus and Soda having a blow-up at each other for the stupidest fucking reasons is great. Q getting paranoid and pissy at Charlie for quashing drama is great. Charlie quashing drama sucks.

This challenge is the kind of great shit that 90-minute episodes allow for

lol, Q is getting mad over a goofy, random game

It's always funny when they highlight how hilariously white Jeff is.

Jeff - "This is the most fun I've had at a challenge in a long time." SAME

No shout outs to Alaska this time?

Good for Kenzie, because I think she might've been a legitimate target with that group otherwise.

Meanwhile...I would be stunned if Venus survived tribal council here. At least she makes the jury.

Pre-jury Kenzie, especially under these circumstances, would have been a fitting end for her.

Eh, I think Kenzie would be fine as long as she didn't try to turn on Q or Tiffany. I guess it depends on just how solid the 6 is. (And if they are solid, Ben is screwed.)

Because this is the severalth episode of this season, it's called "Episode Several" - the Jelinsky tributes are hilarious.

Also, did they skip a level? Nah, probably not, they just edited it out since nobody fell.

I wish more challenges were just fun like this one was . I also wish they didn't do bullshit like the "one foot only" - it's more fun when it's an actual duel.

Also happy Venus gets to make jury and look glamorous at Tribal every episode from here on out, since I think she's gone. No idea who goes from NuNami, but I'd think OG Yanu is in full control since they have half the votes.

So looking at these two teams: Kenzie is immune, and Yanu has half the tribe. Unless they turn against each other (for stupid reasons, since the last season they would've seen had the Tika 3 dominating together), then they have every reason to stick together and target one of the others. If the Journey 6 is legit, then Ben is the easy target here, but I have to imagine Tim won't be okay with that, and it complicates things to have Hunter on the tribe without safety (that they know of). I feel like a Siga is going home, and I could see it being Tim here (he kinda fits the Sifu/Dwight merge boot who misses the jury) edit mold.

A Nami is definitely going home on the other team. Charlie SHOULD be the obvious vote, but the Namis hate each other, and Venus has such a massive target on her back (plus Soda has a massive target on HER bag).

"I jumped off on purpose"

Historical revisionism, my friends.

lol, Q is the best kind of alpha male edit...he's hilarious in just how much he wants to control everything.

Blaziken posted...

I could see it being Tim here (he kinda fits the Sifu/Dwight merge boot who misses the jury) edit mold.

I agree. Alternatively, Q is getting SUCH a cocky edit this episode after all those threats of quitting earlier, I could see this setting him up for a blindside.

BlueCrystalTear posted...

Because this is the severalth episode of this season, it's called "Episode Several" - the Jelinsky tributes are hilarious.

Also, did they skip a level? Nah, probably not, they just edited it out since nobody fell.

I wish more challenges were just fun like this one was . I also wish they didn't do bullshit like the "one foot only" - it's more fun when it's an actual duel.

Also happy Venus gets to make jury and look glamorous at Tribal every episode from here on out, since I think she's gone. No idea who goes from NuNami, but I'd think OG Yanu is in full control since they have half the votes.

I think they had to do the one foot thing so that challenge would eventually end. They could've kept going for hours with two feet unless the waves picked up.

Venus is SO bad at this. You need to lay LOW for a little bit and survive a vote or two to build up some social capital...stop trying to make plans with people who have zero desire or reason to work with you. I love her, but holy shit she's bad at this.

Mewtwo59 posted...

I think they had to do the one foot thing so that challenge would eventually end. They could've kept going for hours with two feet unless the waves picked up.

Which is what I wanted to see, lol

Also Venus is just asking people to vote her out by trying to call shots without any bullets. Like... why? She thinks she's Kim Spradlin but she's really just ineffective. I have no idea who's going home from NuYanu. I think Q will get Tim out on NuNami though, and Charlie will take his place in that alliance of six. Tim being the last pre-juror makes sense story-wise.

Yeah, it'd be fun to see, but production doesn't like it because it messes with their schedule

I genuinely love Venus and how absolutely clueless she is.

Venus is such good TV.

Kenzie needs to push for keeping Ben so he can be on the jury. He's a guaranteed vote for her to win. Q... doesn't seem to trust either of them.

I love Q, I really do. I'm surprised that an aggressive alpha male like him is such an intriguing character to me, yet here we are.

I don't know what Tiff wants after that. She thinks Ben is going to play something but wants to vote for him anyway? What?